Monday night's fifth season premiere of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" was seen by a record 9.8 million viewers -- twice as many viewers as the show's previous series high.
The premiere episode, "Cake Boss" marked TLC's highest ratings ever among adults (6.3 rating) and women 18-34 (9.1).
via -The Live Feed.
So although you don’t have all of the numbers available, the likelihood is that it was the number one show on ANY network last night?
Wow all the “affair” PR really worked!
Sean, I bet the #1 show last night was the basketball game.
Edit: Actually never mind. Didn’t an earlier game this round only get 5 mil?
Yea it did, David? And have you seen the reports on the critical bashing the premiere got? I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratings drop quite quickly.
I am not shocked at all. Granted it was competing against network reruns- but those remain extraordinary numbers for cable. Even more amazing was the decent retention TLC had for Cake Boss which imo is completely unwatchable. Now if only the other networks could figure out how to market a train wreck…
Holy moly! No matter how you spin it, those are FANTASTIC numbers – TLC (and Kate LOL) must be thrilled.
This reminds me of the finale of the Bachelor.
it was everywhere.
Finally, REAL reality tv. Instead of showing promotional vacations to Hawaii or Disney World we get ‘Jon & Kate – Disintegration of a Marriage’.
DD, that’s the thing. Even the ‘affair’ is a PR stunt. How do you build hype and ratings for a one-note premise show? Add a fake affair.
People love to watch a train-wreck. Case and point…
I was thinking this to myself last night. “Hmm… i wouldn’t be surprised if this beats everything on broadcast tonight.”
Looks like it may very well have.
How many viewers will stay?
WOW! can’t believe it! 9.8 for cable network? just WOW!
Don – I don’t know if the affair was “fake” or not, but their marriage has always seemed a bit like a train wreck to me. What bothers me the most is what’s going to happen to those poor kids! I have never been a big fan of this show because I found both parents to be annoying (in their own ways). Kate has always come off as bossy and abrasive and Jon comes off as a push over, who kind of always had a air of unhappiness to me. Who knows, but this show makes me sad. I can’t watch it.
The numbers will undoubtedly go down…but wow what a terribly sad episode. I watched the marathon b4 and was all wow what a wonderful happy little show and then I watch last nights episode that had me wishing I hadn’t woken up that day.
I watched some of the premiere and it was very, very lame. Neither Jon nor Kate were even remotely articulate or engaging, and the entire episode was apparently about a birthday party for 5 year olds. So I agree with the previous commenters who suggested the ratings will rapidly drop off for this show.
9.8 million viewers? That’s more than any single episode of Chuck has ever received I believe. How sad.
Obviously an all time record for the TLC network. In fact if you take “Monday Night Football” off the table this is among the highest ratings for any show in the history of cable television.
Chuck is a REAL show, and not some hyped up reality show. All the hype means more viewers. However Chuck has done well without this kind of affair hype at all.
Granted it was hyped when it was trying to be renewed, but what do you expect dedicated fans to do?
David, Disney had bigger numbers with High School Musical 2
The reports are that it was definately higher than any network show.
Hey, statistics people, how often does a cable show beat all 5 networks on a weeknight?
Lots of people watched who had never watched before. I mean, when you go into the supermarket and every single tabloid has Jon & Kate on the cover, the curiosity level is going to spike even among non-regular viewers! So yes, the ratings will drop off, but if they remain tabloid darlings it will still be higher than usual for a TLC show.